The WBBL’s December awards have gone to London Lions’ play-caller Mark Clark and WBBL mainstay Helen Naylor after her continued excellent form since returning to Sheffield Hatters.

Clark wins the Molten WBBL Coach of the Month for December, adding this to his equivalent award for September/October, after Lions have continued to set the pace over the start of the season.

Going 4-0 in WBBL action in December, they are currently top of the WBBL Championship table at a perfect 10-0 as one of only two unbeaten teams left standing in the league.

Lions started the month by twice going through a century in beating Nottingham Wildcats and Oaklands Wolves, showing remarkable consistency as they didn’t lose a quarter of basketball over those two games, nor dip under 23 points scored in any period, as six players scored in double-figures on both occasions.

Averaging 94 points per game in December, overall Lions lead the WBBL offensively (95.4 points per outing) and in a range of offensive categories, including field goal percentage (47.4%), bench scoring (30.1 points), free-throw percentage (80.1%), offensive rebounds (17.3) and fast break points (18.9).

But their biggest result of the month came courtesy of a determined second half defensive stand in beating the previously unbeaten Sheffield Hatters 67-65 on the road. Lions trailed by as many as 15, but held their hosts to just 15 points in the final 18 minutes, and only seven in the fourth quarter, to snatch the victory when they scored eight unanswered points immediately out of a Clark timeout midway through the final period.

Lions face a huge January, opening with a top-of-the-table clash with the only other unbeaten side, Sevenoaks Suns, and ending the month with the WBBL Cup Final at Utilita Arena Birmingham. They also continue to fly the flag in the FIBA EuroCup Women after securing perhaps the biggest result in the history of British women’s basketball, beating French powerhouse Tango Bourges at Crystal Palace.

Meanwhile, Helen Naylor picks up the Molten WBBL Player of the Month award for December after leading Hatters to a 2-1 month – with their only defeats so far this season being against London, in the Cup and the Championship – as they currently sit in third place with an 8-1 league record.

She opened the month by making the weekly All-Star 5 twice in a row after her performances in victories over Essex Rebels on the road and Newcastle Eagles at home.

The win over Rebels put important ground between Hatters and the teams currently just outside of the top four, and in that game Naylor poured in 34 points on eye-watering shooting efficiency of 8-10 (80%) inside and 6-11 (54%) from three-point range, also adding eight rebounds, three steals and two assists. Hatters led for much of the game, but a late comeback from their hosts got them back to within two shots until, amazingly, Naylor hit nine points in a row and 14 in a late 16-2 surge that settled it.

In an 88-68 defeat of Newcastle a week later, she scored 25 points on 11-14 (78%) shooting from the field including a perfect 3-3 from three-point range, and hit a dagger triple among seven fourth quarter points as, again, Hatters had to see off a late comeback from their visitors.

A veteran of all eight campaigns since the league’s inception in 2014, the 34-year-old returned to Hatters as they returned to the league in the summer, and her scoring average is currently at the best it has been since 2015. She has twice been elected to the Molten WBBL Team of the Year, in 2015 and 2016, and has three appearances on the Molten WBBL British Team of the Year, with the most recent being in 2019 when she famously hit a three-pointer with 0.6 seconds left to win the WBBL Cup for her team.

Overall this season, Naylor has once again shown herself to be among the league’s most dangerous scorers on all levels, and she is currently the fifth leading scorer (17.3 points per game), the leader in free-throw percentage (87.5%), fourth in three-point percentage (37.8%), and eighth in field goal percentage (48.8%).

Hatters head on the road for three consecutive games to open 2022, first at Cardiff Met Archers before a big clash with Naylor’s former team, the fifth-placed Manchester Met Mystics.